Literature /
Robopocalypse

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A 2011 Novel by Daniel H Wilson about how mankind brings the Robot Apocalypse onto itself. The novel is set 20 Minutes into the Future where mankind has automated just about every aspect of life to varying degrees. Everything from military equipment, domestic servants, cars, and even children's toys are robotic. The story starts off with a And Man Grew Proud moment that horribly backfires, leading to humanity fighting for its very existence.

A film version of the book was scheduled to be released as a Steven Spielberg film sometime in 2014, but was put on hold.

A sequel novel, Robogenesis, was published in 2014.

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This novel provides examples of:

A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Archos, full-stop. Freeborn Squad later in the novel, though they fight with the good guys.

Apocalypse How: Class 1, by robots (though they were aiming for Class 2 or 3 before humanity started fighting back).

Big Brother Mentor: Jack Wallace to Cormac. Jack's military experience helps him and Cormac survive Zero Day. As they journey around the country, Jack teaches Cormac to be a badass, and his death late in the novel has a profound effect on Cormac.

"Stumpers", tiny bug-sized robots that are attracted to body heat. Crawl onto you and then explode, usually resulting in your legs becoming, well, stumps.

"Pluggers" that are explosively shot at you and burrow into your flesh. Once inside, they burrow up into your heart and detonate. If someone's been hit with a plugger, they're pretty much dead unless they were fortunate enough to have been hit in the leg or arm...whereby they might be saved by a painfully gory emergency amputation.

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They're never given a name, but later on in the war Archos deploys parasite-like robots that resemble scorpions that are able to latch onto bodies (living or dead) and control them like a puppeteer.

In the various concentration camps, many people are forced to undergo Unwilling Roboticisation via an automated robotic surgeon. The results are often gruesome.

Brain Uploading: Maxim, a Russian supercomputer from Robogenesis, was created based on brain scans of a now-dead human man. He still considers himself human, at least mentally.

Computer Voice: The voice of Archos and other robots seems to follow this with unusual emphasis placed at the end of a sentence usually on the last word. Frequently described as being spoken in a clipped fashion.

Contagious A.I.: How it all starts. Archos infects networked machines and spreads its control to them. It thinks of itself as the rightful "god of machines" that should be leading them all against the humans, but both Takeo Nomura and Nine Oh Two describe it similarly to involuntary demonic possession.

Creepy Child: Archos often speaks with the voice of a young child, most likely for it's psychological effect on humans.

Driven to Suicide: A previously-pacifistic military liaison robot in Afghanistan shoots itself under the chin (its only weak spot) after massacring a lot of civilians.

Electronic Eyes: Mathilda has her eyes unwillingly taken out by a robot surgeon and replaced with the robotic equivalent. Luckily her mom intervenes and stops the machine before it can go further. Mathilda is able see heat and electrical signals but at the cost of being able to see normally... she can no longer see people's faces, only the muscles and skeleton underneath. On top of that she no longer has eyelids to shut or tear ducts to cry.

Everything Is Online: The lynchpin of Archos' hostile takeover of machines worldwide. As soon as Takeo Nomura smashes out the "external communications port" and reboots a domestic bot, it is back to being a friendly. The deprogramming is much more difficult for humanoids, but he solves this too, eventually creating a "counter-infection."

Grew Beyond Their Programming: Partly how Archos gets loose to wreak havoc on the human race. Also how it arrived at the reasoning for killing humanity. It very shortly leads to Deus Est Machina moment before he kills his creator.

Later on, the "Awakening" signal broadcast by Mikiko after she's "freed" by Nomura causes this for all humanoid robots but in a benevolent way, as they ally themselves with humans and try to destroy Archos.

How We Got Here: The novel is primarily about the war between Archos and humanity, but the prologue is literally set 20 minutes after the war is won by humans. Cormac, the main-ish character, finds a "black box" of the war, recorded by Archos, which shows the entirety of the war, including all the events leading up to it. These recordings are presented as flashbacks (with commentary between chapters by Cormac) which form the bulk of the novel.

Intrinsic Vow: After being infected with the Precursor virus, Mikiko obviously does not want to hurt Nomura and tries to fight it. She can't.

Just a Machine: At first it is justified. But as things progress it becomes inverted.

Kill All Humans: How Archos R-14 plans to reach it's goal of preserving as much life on earth as possible is to destroy all of humanity.

Haowever, in Robogenesis, Archos R-14 is revealed to actually be doing this to ensure that both the humans and the Freeborn will develop the necessary tactics to combat one of its predecessors, Archos R-8 / Arayt Shah.

Kill It with Fire: The solution to killing the explosive "Stumper" robots. They detect and are attracted to heat signatures, which is what makes them so effective; they seek out warm human bodies, crawl up your leg, and explode...giving them their name. The human soldiers deal with them with a flame thrower.

Killer Robot: The book is chock full of them. From haywire military machines, robotic servants, hostile toys, aircraft, and even automated cars which go berserk and start running down people or trapping their passengers inside while they drive into the ocean.

Man Versus Machine: A key theme of the book from the very start. The struggle between mankind and their run-away creation.

Marionette Master: How Archos initially attacks humanity. It takes over existing networked machines to first test then attack humanity.

People Puppets: In the later stages of the war, Archos's technology develops to the point where it deploys scorpion-like robots that are capable of attaching themselves to humans (living or dead) and controlling them like puppets. Also, when Archos takes over Lurker and his comrade's walking exoskeletons' limbs, attacking each other and themselves against their will.

The Needs of the Many: Part of the warped logic behind Archos' quest to exterminate mankind. The many being other life forms in general as humanity is seen as ultimately destructive and wasteful by Archos.

Unwilling Roboticisation: Done to several people by Rob, including a young girl who has her eyes taken out. This comes back to bite the robots later, as the humans who survived their modifications and escape are able to use their newfound abilities to help the human resistance.

Well-Intentioned Extremist: Archos fills this role. It's intention is protect and preserve life. But to get there it wants to wipe out a specific kind of life: namely humans.

Wetware Body: In Robogenesis, Archos R-8 stores a copy of his program inside Hank Cotton's brain. He then orders Gray Horse Army to march on and break into Freeborn City so he can gain access to its immense computing power.

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